Batting

KALAMAZOO, Mich.--The Adrian College baseball team completed a four-game weekend sweep of its key Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association series with Kalamazoo College on Sunday, taking both ends of a twinbill over the host Hornets 3-1 and 4-1.

TOP 'DAWGS
= Senior Brian Killinger was 4-for-7, including a triple, with two runs batted in and a run scored on the day.

= Classmate Ryan Dorow had three hits, including a double and triple, to go along with two RBI during the doubleheader. He also scored twice.

= Freshman pitcher Pierce Banks improved to 3-0 with the complete-game win in the opener. He allowed just four hits, an earned run and two walks while striking out one batter.

= Senior Kyle Shepherd (1-0) earned the Game 2 win in relief, going 4-1/3 effective innings. He worked around four walks to limit Kzoo to a pair of hits and an earned run while getting three strikeouts.

THE OPPOSITION
= For the afternoon, Ian Kobernick was 4-for-7, including a double, with a pair of runs scored and RBI both.

= Jacob Gilhaus (L, 2-1) was the hard-luck loser in the nightcap, as he scattered six hits, two runs (1 earned) and had three strikeouts. He issued no walks.

HOW IT HAPPENED, Game 1
= Dorow hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Ian Mikowski from third base, snapping a 1-1 tie in the top of the fifth inning. The Bulldogs capitalized on a Hornets miscue to plate the unearned run, as Mikowski led off by reaching second on a dropped fly ball to center. A bunt single by Killinger moved Mikowski over to third.

= Junior Hunter Hayes gave Adrian an insurance run in the seventh when he hit singled to right center to plate Dorow, who reached on a triple to left center.

= Kobernick homered to left field to pull Kzoo into a 1-1 tie in the fourth.

= Junior Frank Resto singled up the middle in the top of the fourth to stake Adrian to a 1-0 advantage.

= Adrian outhit Kzoo 9 to 4 and scored two of its three runs with two outs.

= Trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh, the Hornets got the tying run to the plate with one out. After Mitch VanKoevering singled off the third base bag, Banks got Brett Garwood to pop out to shortstop and Todd Bonnivier to fly out to center to secure the victory.

HOW IT HAPPENED, Game 2
= Adrian got all the offense it needed with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth inning. Dorow doubled down the left field line to plate Killinger, and junior Brian Guck lifted a sacrifice fly to right to score Dorow, who had moved over to third base after he tagged up on Hayes' flyout to right.

= The Bulldogs tacked on two more runs in the next frame as Killinger delivered a two-run single up the middle for a 4-0 cushion.

= Kobernick homered to left-center in the bottom of the sixth for the Hornets' lone run.

= Shepherd entered the contest in the fifth, inheriting three base runners. With Adrian hanging on to a 4-0 lead, he escaped the jam when he got Ryan Orr to foul out to Resto on a terrific play by the Bulldogs' catcher.

= In the bottom of the ninth, Stefan Leclerc walked to lead off the inning. Shepherd got the next three batters to flyout, and the game ended when freshman Gunner Rainey (2 hits in the opener) made an outstanding catch at the left field wall on a ball hit by Jordan Wiley.

= Adrian outhit Kzoo by an 8-4 count, including a pair of doubles by senior Miccoy Drzewiecki.

= The Hornets had nine runners left on base.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
= The Bulldogs are "receiving votes" (19 points) in the Week 4 D3baseball.com Top 25 poll. The team has won three of four games versus nationally-ranked competition so far this spring.

= Dorow took over the team lead in RBI with 20--which is now in a three-way tie for first in the conference.

= This series features three of the MIAA's top-five hitters: Kobernick (.471), Mikowski (.429) and Dorow (.459).

= The Bulldogs lead the all-time series 104 to 64.

= Adrian is the eight-time defending conference champion to tie a MIAA record while Kalamazoo is the defending MIAA tournament champion (that receives the automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship). Both teams rank 1-2 in the preseason coaches' poll.

= The Bulldogs are averaging 7.2 runs (1st) and hitting .332 (1st) as a team, and the pitching staff owns a MIAA-leading 2.91 ERA.

= Adrian's four-game winning streak ties a season long, and the Bulldogs are 13-3 over their last 16 outings.

UP NEXT
= Adrian steps out of MIAA play on Wednesday (4 p.m.) to travel to Baldwin Wallace in Berea, Ohio. The Bulldogs resume conference action next Friday and Saturday versus Calvin, http://www.adrianbulldogs.com/sports/m-basebl/2016-17/schedule.